Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-09-17
RUsKIN's PUBLISHING HOUSE.
The Duties Thereof Discharged by .
Very Few Persons-Notes.
81

The Duties Thereof Discharged by .
Very Few Persons-Notes-
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Sept. 81 haven't any
thing specially new today to tell about
John Ruskin, the English philosopher,
who is both crazy and sane, If we may be-
lieve the cable reports, but / nave a little
of interest to give about his publishing
house at Orpington. 1t isn't new with
me, but is told 50 well by the English
writer, from whom l crib it, that you
won't mind that little circumstance:
"Your readers will be surprised, think,
to hear what the staff is which discharges
the duties of this publishing house have
described. 1t consists of eight persons
only, two OF whom, it should be stated,
are largely occupied, not so much in the
publishing as in the producing depart
ment. Mr.. George Allen, the publisher,
is himself an engraver by profession For
thirty years he has been engaged as Mr..
Ruskins assistant in this matter Read.
ers of Modern Painters will remember
Mr. Ruskins compliment to Mr.. G.
Aliens accurate line studies from ma
ture, and nearly all his later works
from the Oxford lectures to 'Praterita'
have been engraved by the same careful
and skillful hands. Mr. Allen, in his
tti IL, 10 uSoIStCu III tic CuSIdNluS NOEk Dy
his second son The eldest son and daugh-
ter are chiefly responsible for directing
the detail of the publishing work, while
Mrs, Allen and her remaining son and two
daughters are the other hands Even
so, have not enumerated all the family
tasks. More and more Mr. Ruskin has
come, as he has said, to trust to his good
friends at Orpington. At first he took an
active part in experimenting the issue of
his books; but lattcrly he has merely said:
Bring out such and such book, and
they bring it out; DO this, and they do
it. Miss Allen, in addition to her duties
as proofreader, was mainly responsible,
too, for the compilation of the 'Ruskin
Birthday Book Nooutside help has ever
been called into any department. is not
the establishment rather heavily taxed
/ asked, at times, when new book like
1.-THE Stones of Venice" for instance, is is
sued" We'll, yes, it is, was the answer;
but what we have to do we do For one
thing there is no alternative. You see
there is nobody in this village whom we
could take on for emergencies; but, be-
sides that, we all have our hearts in the
work, and have been determining from the
first to make Mr.. Ruskin's experiment n
success Publishing at Orpington is, as
will be seen, distinctly home industry
and the Aliens, as Mr.. Ruskin says in the
! preface to the Seven Lamps are dis
tinctly a helpful family"
On his Both birthday, the Sth OF Feb.
ruary, 1882, his fathers partner, Mr..
Henry Telford, gave him Rogers Italy"
and he says in his autobiography, lit de.
termined the main tenor of my life"
! At that time had never heard of Turner, ex
| cept in the well remembered saying of Mr. Run
ciman's, that ''the world had lately been nue.
! dazzled and led away by splendid ideas
thrown out by Turner" But | had no sooner
cast eyes on the Rogers vignettes than l took
them for my only master and set myself to in
tate them as far as l possibly could by fine per
shading
When he was IA years Of age his pa.
rents were divided between wishing him
to be a bishop and wishing him to be poet
laureate. c. j. L.